Finding Hope
by Gatemage
Summary: When Saralie Carter tries to find a home with her Uncle Jack after her father's death when her mother starts drinking and doing drugs, she finds hope and a new future ON HIATUS until the muse returns...
1. The child hacker

Saralie lay on her bed. She looked up at the plain white ceiling and sighed. Life was so boring now that her uncle had left. Saralie got up from her bed and walked over to the computer. "Dear Uncle Jack," she said as she typed up an email to him, "I haven't heard from you in a while," she paused wondering how to put this, "And I was wondering," She thought the wording over. "I was wondering if I could come visit you, where ever you went with Zoe. I miss both of you dearly and Mom's drinking again. I don't feel safe at home. I was wondering if I could come to live with you. Yesterday I found Pot in one of her drawers and I found signs that she's going to start up on other drugs. I'm really worried about her and myself. Ever since Dad died she's been getting worse. Please help me Uncle Jack!" She typed her name on the letter "Saralie Carter"

Before hitting send, she copied the whole of the letter, and then she sent it. Next, she hacked into her uncle's laptop. He had it on him when he left. She pasted her letter on a Microsoft Word document that she named "Letter from Saralie for Uncle Jack". She saved it and closed out of his computer. Uncle Jack had always said she shouldn't hack, or he'd have to arrest her, but he was truly proud of her. Following Saralie's father's death, Uncle Jack had taken her on road trip after road trip, just to keep her mind off of her dad. He also did it because being with his niece made him feel close to his dead brother. Saralie sighed. Running her fingers through her soft, wavy blond hair, she erased all traces of writing to Uncle Jack and then, suddenly tired, she lay down in her bed and in a matter of five minute, she was fast asleep.


	2. The request

In the Government settlement of Eureka, a town made up of the smartest people in the world, collected by the United States government to advance science, Jack Carter lay sleeping soundly on his prototype body contouring silicon bed. He woke to the voice that his smart house was programmed to use, "Sheriff," SARAH's synthesized voice came disconcertingly waking him.

"Huh? What?" He muttered, waking up from a dream about his niece, Saralie. "What is it?" he asked, becoming more aware of his surroundings.

"Someone hacked into your computer last night," SARAH said. "They didn't look through it, but left a message for you," Jack regretted having asked, but he sighed as he sat up.

"What does it say?" he asked, half paying attention.

"'Dear Uncle Jack'," SARAH recited, "'I haven't heard from you in a while, and I was wondering if I could come visit you, where ever you went with Zoe. I miss both of you dearly and Mom's drinking again. I don't feel safe at home. I was wondering if I could come to live with you. Yesterday I found Pot in one of her drawers and I found signs that she's going to start up on other drugs. I'm really worried about her and myself. Ever since Dad died she's been getting worse. Please help me Uncle Jack!' signed, 'Saralie Carter,'" Jack groaned. Of course it would be Saralie. She was a good kid, better than Marelle deserved. After Tom's death, Marelle had begun to drink, trying to drown her pain. Jack had taken Saralie for months on end, but Marelle had gotten worse it seemed.

SARAH's voice sounded again. "The same message was sent to your email," Jack groaned.

"I'll have to talk with the people at Global," he muttered to himself as he got dressed. He smiled weakly thinking about Saralie, she was like a second daughter to him, a sister to Zoe.


	3. The Answer

"Allison! Nathan!" Jack yelled as he raced down the hall. Allison Blake stopped and looked at him. She had been walking with Nathan, her husband, soon to be ex-husband.

"What is it?" she asked him, ignoring the disgusted look on Nathan's face.

"I've got a bit of a problem," Jack began, fishing out the data pad devise holding a copy of the document that Saralie had put on his computer. "My niece hacked into my computer last night. She put this on a document on it and sent the same thing to my email. If anything happens to her at home, I'm one of her legal guardians," he explained at an amazingly break-neck pace for him, "I don't know what to do about her, perhaps—" Nathan cut him off.

"She hacked onto your computer?" he asked startled, "How did she do that?"

"She's always been good at that type of thing. She's 16 now, but she started hacking at the age of 4, but at seven she had hacked into the pentagon five times. I had hoped—"

"She was the one who nearly set off a full fledged war by hacking into the pentagon!" Allison yelped.

Jack grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, she was. Tom was really proud of her, even thought he took away the computer he would boast about how his daughter had nearly caused a war. It was his favorite conversation starter, asking what the guest's children had done and then he would talk about Saralie's hacking. I thought she had stopped,"

Nathan spoke up again, "She shouldn't have been able to get to your computer, it's on a Eureka only network, impossible to hack onto," he seemed very shocked, if not mad.

"Well, I doubt you should be able to hack into the pentagon at the age of six as well, but she did it," Jack smiled gamely. "She skipped a few grades, I think she'll fit in," he shrugged, "That is if you'll let her come live with me here,"

"Fine," Nathan gave in after several minutes of careful thought.

"She can't be as bad as that Zoe of yours," Allison joked.

"No where near it," Jack said. "Thank you," he ran off to find a computer.


	4. The good byes

Saralie checked her email first thing the next morning and found one from her uncle. She read it, eyes flashing a sea green, "Saralie, it's good to hear from you!" it read, "I'd be glad to have you live with me. Zoe would like that too. One of my friends is going to come pick you up. His name is Henry Deacon. Henry will pick you up in 10 hours, so start packing Saralie. I have attached a picture of him," Saralie groaned, why couldn't Uncle Jack come get her himself? "Although, you might find a better one on my computer, please don't hack in again. Mr. Stark, the head of technology in our new town was very disconcerted that you hacked into a computer in our town," Saralie started, Stark, she'd hacked into his computer once, made a few adjustments that had in the end resulted in his getting a Nobel Prize. She grinned. She'd get to meet him. "I can't come because I'm the sheriff of our town and I can't take leave from my job. I'm sorry about that, I know that you must have wanted me to come myself, but I can't. Henry will take you on a private jet to our town. I can't wait to see you! I'll meet you when you get into town," it was signed, "Uncle Jack"

Saralie grabbed her suitcase and threw in her favorite clothing first, this included a pair of jeans with a fabric calculator built into the leg she had made the pants herself, a sweater with a built-in MP3 player she had made, the player was waterproof, and a pair of socks that were green, nothing special, she just liked the color. She then tossed in all the rest of her clothes, smiling at how she had fit them all in with room to spare. She the put in her computer, pictures of her father, her passport, she also tossed in her favorite CDs and after a moment's thought she put in a fluffy pink stuffed elephant, it had been a gift from her father when she was three. She sighed, pulling it out and cuddling it. Then she put it back before going to her mother.

"Mommy?" she called, "Uncle Jack invited me to visit him. I'm getting picked up later. Okay mommy?" she asked. Her mother nodded and grunted drunkenly. The room reeked of alcohol and pot. Saralie sighed, "Mommy, I love you. I'll write. It'll be easier for you without having to take care of me. Good bye," Saralie bent down and kissed her drunken mother. Then she left the room and ate breakfast. Saralie brought her suitcase down, pause, took out the computer and looked at the picture. Henry was an African American; he looked like a mechanic from his clothes. He wasn't old, but he had some gray in his hair. Saralie noted the words "Henry's garage" on his grease stained jacket. "Huh. Ten hours from when the message was sent," she checked the time. She had until noon before Henry got there, so she hacked into Stark's computer again. This time was harder, but no match for her custom home made laptop. This laptop she had made herself to be faster, better, and have more memory than any on the market. It was still years ahead and it was five years old.

She looked through his research, noting little errors in his work. She smiled to herself. He would get no where without her editing. She set about fixing his errors, wondering how he kept making these mistakes. Oh well. They were fixed now, but she left a message at the bottom. This is the last time I help you. You need to learn how to do this on your own, Mr. Stark. I have been fixing your errors for years, and this is the last time I'll hack into your computer." She grinned and dug into the computer, wondering what Eureka was and determined to find out.


	5. The Trip

A knock came at Saralie's door as she finished cleaning up after her lunch. She opened it as soon as she could and met Henry for the first time. "Hello, is Saralie Carter in?" he asked.

"Hi, I'm Saralie, you must be Henry Deacon. Come in," she invited. "I just need to put some stuff away and I'll be ready," she put a few things in the cabinet and grabbed her shampoo and conditioner and tossed them in her bag. She grabbed it and turned to Henry. "I'm ready," then she followed him to a car outside the house.

"Where does my Uncle Jack live?" she asked him in the car.

"I'll tell you on the plane," he said, glancing up at the driver. Saralie got chills up her spine; this had something to do with what ever Eureka was. She felt that it was top secret when she found it on Mr. Stark's computer. She had been unable to get into the files about Eureka, what ever that was. These thoughts kept her occupied until the car pulled to a stop and Henry opened the door.

"We're at the Airport," he said to Saralie. He led her to a plane that sat apart from the others, emblazoned with the word "Global" on the side. Saralie got on, following the man.

"Now, can you answer that question I asked before?" Saralie asked innocently.

"First," Henry said, pulling out a stack of papers, "you have to sign these," Saralie looked at them, and back into the earth colored eyes of the man before her.

"Nondisclosure statements?" she asked startled.

"Well, yes," Henry answered shocked that she knew what they were at a glance across the table.

"I had to sign a pile at the age of seven," she explained, "I hacked into the Pentagon several days before I turned seven and found some top secret material. Someone heard from my father that I was the one who did it, and hunted me down. I had to sign the statements then, no biggie now," she smiled disarmingly as she signed them all quickly. "Now," she prompted him.

"Your father is now sheriff of a town known as Eureka. You're only getting in because Nathan Stark agreed to it after hearing something from your uncle. This town is top secret," Saralie perked up. She was going to a top secret _town_? That had to be good.

"I understand," she said, trying to be grave. Inside she felt bubbly. She didn't have to hack to find out about the Eureka files on Nathan Stark's computer.


	6. The Arrival

Saralie met up with her uncle at the Global Dynamics building in the middle of town. He was dressed in a dust colored uniform and grinned widely when he saw her. They ran to each other and embraced. Only after that hug broke up did Saralie notice the man standing beside her uncle. He looked very familiar to her, although she had no idea who he was, she looked him over. He had darker skin than her uncle and looked Norwegian. She smiled softly at him, her disarming innocent smile.

"Hello," she said, extending her hand, "I'm Saralie Carter," he shook her hand.

"This is Nathan Stark," Jack said, and Saralie knew why he looked familiar. She had made it a point to see him when he won his Nobel Prize. Right then she noticed a woman coming out of the building. The woman had darker skin than Nathan but not by much. Her hair was straight and dark. "Saralie, this is Allison Blake," Jack introduced her. Allison and Saralie shook hands.

"I hear that you're quite the hacker, Saralie," Allison said sternly.

"I have a natural talent for technology," Saralie said modestly. Allison looked at her oddly.

"You hacked into the pentagon at the age of six and nearly started a war," Saralie looked dejected. She hadn't come all this way to be lectured. That must be what her uncle told them, and Allison went on, "That's more than just a natural talent for technology. I know you hacked into your uncle's computer yesterday, and frankly, you impressed us," Saralie was pleasantly surprised by this. She had been prepared for a tongue lashing, but had been praised. "I hope you enjoy your time in Eureka," smiled Allison.

Jack started to leave with Saralie, but before they got out of sight, Saralie called back to Nathan. "Mister Stark! Double check your work from now on!" Her uncle looked at her oddly, but the car had already gone far enough that they couldn't hear Nathan's answer.


	7. A new home

Saralie stared at the five foot tall structure before her. Her uncle said it was his house, and Saralie was frankly disappointed. That all changed when she got into the house.

"Welcome home, sheriff," SARAH greeted him. Saralie looked around in shock.

"Hello SARAH. It's the house talking," her uncle said calmly. Jack was used to his talking house. "I didn't tell Zoe that you were coming, but—"

"Hello Saralie," SARAH stated

"SARAH knows," finished Jack glaring at his house. Saralie laughed at the ludicrous sight. "Here, let me show you to your room," he said and led her up the stairs. SARAH lit up one of the extra rooms and Jack led Saralie into the room. "This'll be your room," Jack said. "You'll like the bed. It's a prototype for a body forming silicon"

"I read about this on Mr. Stark's computer," Saralie said before she thought.

"You hacked into his computer?" Jack demanded.

"I was helping to fix his mistakes. He makes a lot of them. I've been fixing them for years," she smiled weakly. "If it wasn't for me, he wouldn't have won the Nobel Prize,"

"What!" Zoe's voice sounded. "Saralie!" Zoe ran in and hugged Saralie. She hadn't seen her cousin in more than a year. "Why didn't you tell me that Saralie was coming, dad?"

"Because I had to get her clearance from Global. I ran to get the clearance before you woke up. I would have told you, but I had arrangements to make. She hacked into my computer to ask if she could come visit," Zoe looked over at Saralie in shock.

"Yes, I hacked, so what?" she pulled out her sweater and turned on the MP3 player to tune everything out. Zoe turned it off.

"We're going to school together, I'll bring you in with me tomorrow," Zoe said simply.

"Fine," Saralie said, "I'll go with you,"


	8. The First Day of School

The next morning, Saralie went to school with Zoe. The school was different from what Saralie expected. The classes harder than those at home and the kids, Saralie could tell by looking at them, were far smarter. Saralie smiled, she loved challenges. This school, she knew, could provide them. Zoe showed her cousin to an open seat and then went to speak with the teacher. He nodded and turned to the class. "Class," he said, "We have a new student. Her Name is Saralie Carter. She just moved from," he stopped, not knowing where Saralie was from.

"Wisconsin," Saralie supplied for the teacher.

"I'm Doctor Naarom," he introduced himself to her. She shook hands with her teacher and was handed a Data-pad for class. She took notes twice as fast as anyone else and when Dr. Naarom gave out class work, you would have thought that she had been in the class the longest. She forwarded her work to the teacher and set to work at hacking into the school computers. The minute Saralie managed to get into the school network, Dr. Naarom started giving notes again. Saralie managed to hide the hacking to take her notes. This way she could continue to find her quarry when she finished her next assignment. By the end of class, Saralie had infiltrated the school system beyond belief. She was up to her old tricks, changing pass codes, making it respond to fingerprint scans only, and only her own fingerprint would be recognized.

Saralie was glad she had the forethought to put a fingerprint scanner on her laptop, and she was an amazing actor. No one believed that Saralie was the one who had hacked into the school computers. Of course, she'd get rid of the fingerprint scan at home and help to solve the codes that the hacker had changed. She'd end up being a teacher's pet for solving the problem and no one would be the wiser to her plan. Once she had helped fix the network, she would be able to access the other Data-pads and watch what the other students were doing. Finding mistakes and sending notes. Saralie would have laughed at them all, but that would have drawn attention to her. She put the last touches to her hack job, as in the adjustments not being in action until after school ended.

After school, Saralie began talking with some people in her class. She targeted the best and brightest of her classmates. She had done the same thing in her old town, every year, she would make a network of those who she could help most and they would help her in return. She was friendly and kind, asking about the town, the way any new student would do. She made friends with the smartest people in her class, and then targeted the people at the lower end of the class, those having trouble with their work.

"Hi," she said to them. "I noticed that you were having trouble with your work today. Would you like some help with it sometime?" She smiled sweetly; she really did want to help them. She had arranged to help several of them after school the next day before Zoe ran up to meet up with her.

"Hi Zoe!" Saralie cried, smiling at her cousin broadly. Just then, her uncle pulled up to take them home.


	9. The Gift of Knowlege

The three Carters sat at the supper table in silence. "So, how was your day, Saralie?" Jack asked, trying to strike up a conversation.

"It was pretty good, Uncle Jack," she replied. She was trying to eat her supper as quickly as she could so that she could go continue to hack into the school network. Unfortunately, Jack didn't seem to understand and continued to small talk. Saralie finished her dinner and turned to her uncle. "Uncle Jack, I have homework to finish, may I go work on it?" she asked after clearing her place. He nodded yes and she ran off to her room. Once she got into her room, she pulled out the laptop. Saralie scanned her finger quickly and went back to her hacking. She found the town history on the network and set to reading about the town.

She discovered that Eureka was founded right after World War two. It was a collection of the smartest people on the planet put together by the government. Her uncle, she realized, wasn't meant to be in Eureka at all, but had stumbled in by accident. She laughed, and then applied herself. She learned every thing about the town, up to what her uncle had been doing. She had to admit, she was impressed with him.

She undid some of her modifications, now that she had the information she had been looking for. Saralie found several ways to link Data-pads, and linked all of them in the most subtle way. She smiled and closed out of the school network. She then actually finished her homework on her Data-pad and put into her bag.


	10. The Partner

Saralie walked into class the next day to see Dr. Naarom fumbling over the computer. "Is something wrong?" she asked him, seeing the trouble he was having.

"Yes," he grunted. Saralie smiled weakly as she worked up the nerve make her suggestion.

"Maybe I could help?" she asked him, seemingly uneasy that someone had done this.

"How?" he asked, looking at her, "I'm a good hacker," he whispered to her, "I can't get in, how can you help?"

"I hacked into the pentagon when I was six. I don't know who would do this, but I can help you get back into the network," she suggested. The class was looking at her oddly; she smiled weakly as Dr. Naarom backed up to let her try. She had set the computer to change the pass code so it wouldn't look suspicious. She worked at the computer for five minutes before she got in and let her teacher have the computer back. She then went smiling to her seat as Dr. Naarom fixed her hacking job. She pulled out her Data-pad and pulled up the link to the other smartest kid's pad. "Hi, Nelson," she wrote to him. "Don't say anything, but I made this link when I hacked into the system"

Nelson looked up, but replied on the pad, "How? You only had a few minutes to hack in?"

"I hacked into the pentagon three times before I was seven, I'm a pro!" she replied. "But, hey, perhaps you could show me around the town some time, like this week end," she suggested. Saralie sent the message and began taking notes. She and Nelson struck up a good friendship during the time when they had both finished their class work and were waiting for the next task. They talked about a lot of things, but what drew Saralie to him, other than his vast intelligence, was his looks. Nelson had brown wavy hair that fell down several inches past his shoulders when it was loose. He wore it in a ponytail. His eyes were a piercing blue that looked deep into Saralie's mind and brought her to see him as a challenge rather than just a guy. She saw him as a partner in crime.


	11. The past

"So," Nelson said to Saralie when they were in town, "What was your life like before you came here?" He didn't realize what he was getting into when he asked the question, but Saralie sighed.

"I grew up in Wisconsin. I lived in a small town and I was the smartest person in it. My dad was really proud of me and boasted because I could hack before I got into school. I liked my life up until he died a year ago. My life when down hill from there. My mom started drinking and began doing drugs. I had to get out of that house, so I did something about it," she sighed and Nelson noticed tears running down Saralie's cheeks. He pulled a piece of cloth out and wiped them away.

"I'm sorry," Nelson started, trying to make up for his ignorance, "I didn't know," he whispered, as if whispering could make it all better and make the past go away.

"You couldn't have, Nelson. It's not your fault," Saralie smiled through the tears.

"So what did you do?" he asked, trying to piece together Saralie's past.

"I hacked into my uncle's computer and told him I needed out. It seems he then told Mr. Stark about my hacking and got me in. Henry came to—"

"Henry? As in Henry Deacon?" Nelson asked in shock.

"Yeah, but let me get on with the story. Henry came and brought me to a plane which flew here. I had to sign Non-disclosure statements, again," Saralie smiled at Nelson's shock, "Yes, Again. Then we arrived in Eureka and I met Nathan Stark, Allison Blake, and found my uncle. Now, I'm done."

"Henry came to your house?"

"Yeah, why?" Saralie was confused. Henry had seemed to be a kind, simple man, but she figured there was something more to it.

"He's my Idol," Nelson whispered so quietly that Saralie barely caught it. She smiled softly.

"I've been helping Mr. Stark for years now," she whispered to him. "Don't let anyone know," she gave Nelson a smile that said "It's just you and me, up against the world," he was going to help her if she needed help ever. She could tell. The life story typically got them to be rather devoted to her. She smiled again and Nelson nodded weakly back. What Saralie didn't know was that Nelson was planning to use her to his own ends the way she intended to do with him. He had been playing her to the extreme through out the entire conversation to make her think she had him wrapped around her little finger. That way he could find out information he could use with out her being suspicious.


End file.
